Janel Moloney was born and raised in Woodhills, California on October 3^rd 1969. Along with a twin sister, Cary, Janel also has an older brother, Lance, and an older sister Meegan.  From the age of five, until she was fifteen, she studied ballet lessons and her first experience in acting was when she appeared her high school play, Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’ in which she played Bianca. For a short period her education took her to State University New York Purchase College for the performing arts before later returning to Los Angeles, California to study acting under Roy London.

Janel’s career really began when she landed roles in several made for television series and movies such as ‘Safe and Wild Bill’ in 1995, ‘Til there was You’ when she starred along with her aunt Christine Ebersole and ‘Desperate Measures’ which had her starring with Christopher Meloni, now of ‘Law and Order’ fame. These appearances were followed by cameos in more television series such as ‘Sports Night’ with Felicity Huffman and Brenda Strong, ‘ER’ with George Clooney, "Then She Was Gone" with the now deceased Robert Urich, "To Save A Child’ with Spalding Gray  and ‘Murder She Wrote’ with Angela Landsbury.

But it was 1999 that saw Janel making the biggest move of her career to date when she was cast as Donna Moss in the long running and successful television series ‘The West Wing’, the series set in the West Wing of the White House, the location of the Oval Office and offices of the presidential senior staff. Although Janel’s character had only been intended to appear as a guest star, her rapport with the rest of the cast soon had her filling the role of Donna on a regular basis. The series saw her starring along side Sheen, Spencer and Bradley Whitford.

Janel filled the role until the close of the series in May 2006 and during her time on the show she received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama.